If you visited devout Christians' homes in Jakarta, among all the 'dust catchers', you will likely find the painting I told you earlier. BTW, I just learned about that new term 'dust catcher' from our host H in Zurich. He was right, all the ornaments that we put up at home, are basically meant to catch dust, especially if you visit my home :-). It was quite easy for us, besides we have Fr. Kus who can swear in Italian :-), to find Il Cenacolo Vinciano. Indeed it was nothing but a dining room, next to the church called Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, Our Lady of Grace said the English people. The Dominican friars who (till this day) administered the church lived next door. At one time, they commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a wall in that dining room so that the friars won't get bored just seeing their colleagues while eating the bland food :-). Centuries of damage from all kind of perils, floods, bombing and likely the smoke from the kitchen next door caused that famous painting, The Last Supper, to be in poor quality. If you have one at your home you are better off adoring yours and you save a bundle of money :-). However, I am certain that if Fr. Kus becomes the Pope one day, he will surely tell the Dominicans to lower the entrance fee. Kidding aside, were it not for Fr. Kus's excellent salesmanship and charism, this story would not exist. It turned out that you need to reserve the ticket several days before you can get in to Il Cenacolo. The Japanese tourists must have caused it :-). When we were at the ticket counter, we were told that tickets were sold out. Starting with 'buon giorno' Fr. Kus convinced the lady in (must be) perfect Italian that his two Canadian friends had come all the way just to see The Last Supper and would be leaving tomorrow, something like that :-). Having an Italian compassion, the lady squeezed in the three of us into a group that had just entered the vestibule to the room.
To compensate our pocket book after spending 29 Euro just to see a faded painting on a wall, we went to a castle museum that was once a fortress, Castello Sforzesco. The most important, this museum was free :-). However, after our kids did not like to go with us anymore to the museum, I also am not that enthusiastic about it. It is not interesting to explain things to Cecilia :-), playing Scrabble with her is more exciting. We spent the rest of the afternoon of May 11 with Fr. Kus, sightseeing from the trams. We saw Father to the train station because he has to get back to his study in Rome. His calling is not to be a tour guide :-).
We were fortunate again in the evening. After attending the Vigil Mass at the Duomo, we came back in the evening to enjoy a special concert performed by Orchestra Sinfonica Academia Concertante d'Archi di Milano in honour of our wedding anniversary :-). It was of course a free concert and we were able to get good seats in that lovely catedral. I think the stained-glass in Duomo is one of the most beautiful in the world. Two pieces were performed by that Milan Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak's Symphony IX, Dal Nuovo Mondo, there is a new world, said my friends from Marriage Encounter :-). The last piece was Haydn's Mass (Messa in Augustiis) complete with the sopran, alto, tenor and bass singers. Dona nobis pacem was the last song and indeed we felt so peaceful when we had to leave the Duomo that night and went back to our Albergo Italia.
As I said earlier, I love Milan and our experiences in that fashion city of Italy. The Italian people are like Indonesian, very friendly. I once said, you can tell Indonesian or Italian coming or leaving at Toronto Pearson International Airport just by looking at how many people greet or send them away. Since we were going to another unique Italian city, Venice, in the morning of May 12, we were as excited. I had anticipated our arrival into the Venice train station because S, my canoeing buddy and teacher told me about how wonderful was the scenery when she entered Venice in the morning and she could see the sea from her train. Perhaps we arrived too late in the morning or nearing noon. It was just a so-so view, nothing magical. Perhaps we have been married too long because indeed Venice is a romantic city. We left both our backpacks at the train station that cost 5 Euros per pack per 12 hours. We then walked for about an hour from the train station to our hotel near the San Marco piazza where the tourists from all over the world gathered.
In the next episode, I will share with you some more exciting things we experienced in Venice, including a private boat tour courtesy of Venice "tourist promotion" office to the famous island of Murano where they make the Venetian glasses :-). Stay tune, buon giorno or buena noce, ciao.
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